Keely Hodgkinson has revealed she walked away from athletics as a schoolgirl after losing her passion for running, before being inspired to return by Jessica Ennis-Hill's exploits at the 2012 London Olympics.
Hodgkinson is now among British athletics' most prominent and accomplished stars. She secured a silver medal in the 800 metres at the postponed 2020 Summer Olympics, aged 19, before claiming gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The 24-year-old is a two-time European Athletics Championships victor and triumphed at the World Indoor Championships earlier this year.
A difficult start
Hodgkinson holds the world record over 800m indoors and the British record over 800m outdoors, while being a four-time national champion. As one of the finest middle-distance runners of her generation, it would be easy to presume the Mancunian has held ambitions of becoming a track athlete throughout her life.
Yet, the Team GB star explained in a Sky Sports interview last week that she didn't enjoy it as a schoolgirl and actually stopped training completely for a period. Having temporarily given up the sport, she was inspired to rethink her decision after witnessing Ennis-Hill's exploits at the 2012 London Olympics.
Inspired by Ennis-Hill
Hodgkinson, inspired by London gold medallist Ennis-Hill, decided aged 10 that she wanted to become a heptathlete. She then moved to what she describes as the most difficult element of the heptathlon - the 800m - and secured her first gold medal at the England Championships in the U17 category back in 2017.
She started off by saying: "I love the life that I've created with this. If you'd said to me six years ago that I'd be able to do all of this just because you run around in circles, it's actually kind of insane."
Finding her feet
However, Hodgkinson, who was also a keen swimmer as a child, said: "During that time, I actually didn't like athletics that much. I was really young so it didn't matter but I kind of stepped away from it."
"I remember my dad saying, 'You're really good at the running', and I'd be like, 'I don't want to do it. It's hard.' I didn't enjoy it. Then I remember seeing Jessica Ennis at the London Olympics, the golden girl at the time, and she really did inspire me to go back."
"My coach back then was very happy to see me come back and I kind of had a love-hate relationship with it for a few years, until I found my feet and what I wanted to do. Then I stuck with it from there."
Hodgkinson admitted she hadn't thought about reaching the Olympics until much later. The Team GB superstar said: "I won that national title and I thought we have the European Youths next year. It was my last year at school and I thought, 'I really want to make that team.'"
"I made the team and I ended up winning it. So after I established myself as one of the best in Europe for my age, which was really cool, I kind of progressed from there and before you know it I was in the Olympics."
